Audit: 27,000 DMV applicants had invalid Social Security numbers
GARY D. ROBERTSON
Associated Press

RALEIGH, N.C. - Nearly 27,000 people used invalid Social Security numbers or numbers belonging to dead people when applying for North Carolina driver's licenses and identification cards, according to a state audit released Tuesday.

The review examined more than 8.1 million applications at the Division of Motor Vehicles in which a Social Security number was presented to obtain a new or renewed license or ID card, according to State Auditor Les Merritt's office. The numbers were crosschecked with numbers on file at the Social Security Administration.

Of those applicants, 14,122 numbers were not within the range of valid numbers, and another 12,796 numbers matched with those of deceased people, Merritt's office said. The two numbers combined represent about one-third of 1 percent of the applications examined.

More than half of all the bad numbers belonged to individuals with revoked and expired licenses or ID cards, the review found.

While it isn't clear whether the bogus numbers were caused by keypunch errors or fraud, Merritt blamed the DMV for failing to review licenses issued with the bogus numbers. He said failing to do so "represents a potential threat to homeland security and exacerbates the problem of identity theft."

"A driver's license is like a master key that can grant broad access by unlocking multiple doors," Merritt said in a news release. "It is absolutely imperative to spend the resources to get a reliable database going forward and clean up all licenses that have been improperly issued."

DMV Commissioner George Tatum has instructed his staff to work on a case-by-case basis to review the potentially invalid numbers and take appropriate action.

The DMV began participating in an online verification of Social Security numbers in 2004. About 1,900 people cited for invalid numbers in the report have returned to a driver's license office since then, and nearly all of their numbers have been validated, the DMV said in a response to the review.

Some discrepancies may have been caused by people who lawfully received their license under a married name but never updated their Social Security records to reflect a name change, the division said.

A Social Security number wasn't required to obtain a license until after October 1997, and about 1.7 million applications that came in before that date weren't included in the review.

The state Attorney General's Office said the 1997 requirement only applied to people who had actually been provided a Social Security number, Merritt spokesman Chris Mears said.

In early 2002, license examiners required either a Social Security number or taxpayer identification number to receive a permit. The General Assembly last year narrowed the requirements to a valid Social Security number or visa for foreign nationals.